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| From Viaje a Suiza |
On Saturday I went to see the site of the United Nations and the Red Cross ... I only expected to see the buildings from the outside and nothing more, but I got a pleasant surprise when I found that the museum of the "red cross and red crescent moon" was open. Admission is cheap CHF 10 (10 Swiss francs, about 9 U.S. dollars).
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
The museum is very nice, and very interactive, not one of those boring museums that display hundreds of things in a room with a small sign below each one.
This museum is a great room divided into sections, but keeping the feeling of and open space and full of light.
The exhibitions are really big and bright, with lots of graphics and data in many languages, sounds, videos and automatic exhibits (which are activated upon entering a section), and a great way to convey their message, for example a 6'x6'x3' room, representing a windowless cell where representatives of the ICRC found a large number of political prisoners, dozens of glass panels containing the original files of all prisoners of war, murals detailing yearly the different events world (natural or human) involving the participation of the ICRC (notably, the wall of 1982 did not contain any mention of the Malvinas conflict).
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
Another interesting thing is this block of wood with an inscription inviting all to write their own definition of freedom. Well, most of the comments are in Spanish.
When I got in the museum I thought I would go thru it in a few minutes, but it's so interesting that several hours later I was surprised to hear a reminder that the museum would close in 15 minutes.
One interesting thing I discovered when looking for a hotel for the weekend was that several of the hotels here give you a free travel card valid for all mass public transport, taking into account that a travel card for 2 hours here is 2 CHF (U.S. $ 1.5 approx), this gift from the hotel / Swiss municipalities are a real bonus.
For example, the Hotel Grand-Pre, where I staid cost CHF 100 (that was the price line, if you contract directly with the hotel would have 50% more) and included the airport suttle and the transport card, whereas the transport from the airport can cost approximately CHF 20 or 25, and possibly would have spent about CHF 15 on buses, trams, etc. So the hotel came out a real bargain. Especially in Geneva where the hotels are more luxurious and ridiculously expensive.
For example, L'Anglaterra (which are often some colleagues when they come for business) costs more than U.S. $ 300 .... WOW !!!!!!! ... Clearly that is not the same kind of hotel ... the one I use is a little more humble :-P
I used the card a lot, not only to and from the nations of the area (where the UN, the ICRC, and most of the embassies are) but also when I got tired of walking, or I was cold, and even when I had no idea of where to go. I would then just get in to the first bus or tram to show up and just see where it took me. Whenever I see something interesting, I just got off there.
That's how I got to the Geneva channels, got off the bus and started walking along the shore until the lake and a little bit arround it. YES, it was cold, but the view really worth it.
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
look at this photo of the lake, noticed the whitish spots on the water, is not a reflection of the lights, it's my camera's flash illuminating the stones in the bottom. I was about 6 feets high, and water meters deep would be another 3 or 4 feets... That's what I call clear waters !!!!
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
As I commented on another blog, on Sunday we traveled from Geneva to Lausanne (the city where we had the meetings).
Rather than going the direct way, we decided to detour a bit and we first went to the headquarters of our company:
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
From there we went to a ski resort nearby and then went to eat (You can see me here tasting some frog's legs), and finally to the hotel.
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
since we had over 4 hours until we meet for dinner, I decided to go for a walk. I went down the hill / mountain to get to the lake, then walked along the lake until sunset and then I took a bus to the hotel (with a free travel card, courtesy of the hotel and the city of Lausanne).
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| From Viaje a Suiza |
And with this beautiful image (my image, of course) I leave you until my next psot ...
hugs to everyone ....
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